McKenna re-elected in Ottawa Centre
Complaints of long queues at polling stations appeared to delay vote count
Voters in Ottawa Centre returned Liberal Catherine McKenna to Parliament for a second term Monday night, handing her a surprisingly easy victory despite a strong challenge from the NDP’s Emilie Taman.
“This has been a tough campaign in Ottawa Centre and it’s been a really tough campaign for the country,” McKenna told a crowd of supporters at her victory party at the Craft Beer Market at Lansdowne Park. “One of the lessons to emerge from today’s results is the need for a more positive political culture in our country,” she said, urging Canadians to listen to each other and be open to different ideas.
She also said she was heartened to see that climate change was such a key issue for voters, with more than two-thirds of all votes cast for parties that make climate change a priority.
“I’m so happy that finally climate change is a top election issue,” McKenna said. “Climate change is not just an environmental issue. It’s an economic issue. It’s a national security issue. It’s a social justice issue. And most of all, it’s about the kind of future that we want to see for our kids and grandkids.”
If the Liberal celebration was muted by the knowledge that they would govern as a minority in the next Parliament, it didn’t show Monday night, with deafening cheers of “Catherine! Catherine!” when McKenna finally appeared at around 11:30 p.m.
Ottawa Centre was one of several ridings in the Ottawa area plagued by election problems, with polls opening late and reports of long lineups to vote.
What was thought to be a close race turned out to be romp, with McKenna holding a 10,000-vote edge over Taman at midnight, with more than 70 per cent of the votes counted.
“This is not the result we were hoping for,” Taman told a crowd of disappointed supporters gathered at the 3 Brewers pub on Sparks Street. “We ran an incredible campaign, we talked about ideas that were substantive, we were positive and optimistic,” she added.
Taman thanked her supporters, her family, her husband Michael Spratt and her staff. She also paid an emotional tribute to her mentor and former Ottawa Centre NDP MP Paul Dewar.
For Taman, it was her third unsuccessful run for a seat in the House of Commons. In 2015, she ran in Ottawa-Vanier, challenging the popular incumbent Mauril Bélanger in one of the safest Liberal seats in Canada. She tried again the next year in that ridings’s byelection, again coming second to the Liberals.
Conservative Carol Clemenhagen was a distant third Monday while Angela Keller-Herzog of the Greens garnered just seven per cent of the vote, squeezed out by the strong NDP-Liberal battle.
McKenna was a rookie challenger in 2015 when she took Ottawa Centre away from popular threeterm Dewar. Since then, she has been the highest profile Liberal MP in the national capital and one of the most visible members of the Trudeau cabinet. She served as minister of environment and climate change and was front and centre on high profile files such as the Paris climate agreement and the federal carbon tax.
Ottawa Centre is considered one of the most politically active seats in the country, traditionally flipping between the Liberals and NDP. In 2015, it had the highest voter turnout in the country.
With files from Emilie Warren. bcrawford@postmedia.com